China ACE Awards 2013: Semiconductors, analog devices among winners

SHENZHEN, China, March 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, NXP Semiconductors, Freescale Seminiconductor, Broadcom and Agilent Technologies are among the winners of the China Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards2013, presented during a reception held today in conjunction with the 18th International IC-China Conference & Exhibition (IIC-China), which is running until March 2, 2013 at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center.

"The China ACE Awards honors the people, companies and technologies behind the rapid advances and innovations in mainland China's electronics industry. All winners and finalists have played an outstanding role in improving the design and performances of the country's products," said Brandon Smith, President of Global Sources' joint venture subsidiary eMedia Asia Ltd.

Yorbe Zhang, Chief Executive Analyst and head of the selection panel, said: "Broadcom, which has been voted Company of the Year, is a case in point. For mainland China's fast-growing and fiercely competitive smartphone and tablet PC markets, Broadcom has introduced BCM4335 and BCM43340 integrated wireless access chipsets, which help manufacturers reduce size, cost and power consumption."

IDC China predicted that strong end-user demand and an appetite for lower-priced smartphones would make mainland China the largest market for smartphones in 2012. And the third quarter of 2012 also saw an astounding 62.5 percent year-over-year growth in mainland China's tablet market. Broadcom also won Company of the Year in 2011.

"This year, we see more local fabless companies among the winners, which reflects the growing importance of mainland players in the mainland China market," Smith added.

Executive of the Year, an Editors' Choice Award, went to Wayne Dai, CEO and President of VeriSilicon. Dai was recognized for his role in driving the development of mainland China's IC industry through pioneering semiconductor standard cell libraries in the mainland.

Today, most local foundries such as SMIC, Grace Semiconductor and Hua Hong NEC Electronics use VeriSilicon's standard cell libraries. This year's Innovator of the Year, Zhu Yiming, CEO and President of GigaDevice Semiconductor, has led his R&D team in developing the first Serial Flash chip, the first static memory and IP technology and the first GigaROM product in mainland China.